- Günter Wächtershäuser
Günter Wächtershäuser, a
chemist turned patent lawyer, is mainly known for his groundbreaking and influential work on theorigin of life , and in particular his "iron-sulfur world theory ", a theory that life onEarth had hydrothermal origins. The theory is consistent with the hypothesis that life originated near seafloorhydrothermal vent s.Biographical background
Dr Wächtershäuser, a chemist by training, has been an international patent lawyer in
Munich since 1970. He has published numerous articles inorganic chemistry ,genetic engineering andpatent law , and has made at least two significant contributions to evolutionary theory: the origins of perception and cognition, and the origin of life."Metabolism first"
One of the key ideas advanced by Wächtershäuser is that an early form of
metabolism predatedgenetics . Metabolism here means a cycle of chemical reactions that produce energy in a form that can be harnessed by other processes. The idea is that once a primitive metabolic cycle was established, it began to produce ever more complex compounds. His model is known as theiron-sulfur world theory by analogy with theRNA world hypothesis .Awards
In 1993 Dr Wächtershäuser received the annual award of the
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and the following year he was made an honorary professor at theUniversity of Regensburg .Quotations
* “According to my theory, you can imagine life forms continuously, even today.”
References
* G. Wächtershäuser, "Origin of Life: Life as We Don't Know It", "Science", 289 (5483) (25 August 2000) pp. 1307-1308. [http://ajdubre.tripod.com/Sci-Read-0/y-OriginLife-82500/OriginLifeSci-82500.html]
*G. Wächtershäuser, "Evolution of the First Metabolic Cycles",Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Vol 87 (1990), 200-204 [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/87/1/200.pdf]
* G. Wächtershäuser (1997) The origin of life and its methodological challenge. J Theor Biol 187:483-494
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